Texas confirms hiring of Chris Ash as defensive coordinator
Chris Ash will officially be running the defense in Austin.
After reports trickled out last week that the former Rutgers head coach would be the new defensive coordinator at Texas, the announcement became official on Tuesday. The Texas Twitter account welcomed Ash as the program’s new defensive coordinator.
It will be a reunion for head coach Tom Herman and Ash, who both worked under Urban Meyer during Ohio State’s national championship run in 2014.
Welcome to Texas @CoachChrisAsh! 🤘#ThisIsTexas #HookEm pic.twitter.com/6uKNXwtg4s
— Texas Football (@TexasFootball) December 17, 2019
The news of the move comes after Texas fired Todd Orlando as defensive coordinator following a 7-5 campaign. The Longhorns allowed 28.9 points per game (74th in FBS) and 446.3 yards per game (108th). Longhorns247 first reported the news last week.
Ash was the head coach at Rutgers from 2016 through the first four games of the 2019 season. He was fired following a 52-0 loss to Michigan, the Scarlet Knights’ second shutout loss in four games. Rutgers was 8-32 in 40 games under Ash, and was 3-26 in B1G play.
Midway through the year, Ash had been helping Texas’ defense in an analyst role.